3026. Ask Me Questions


 
We English-language teachers often ask our dear students about different things; we ask them a lot of questions, right?
But can our students ask questions? That’s a good question, isn’t it? Our students must learn how to make questions too, not only answer them.
With my adult students we’ve practiced this activity with long sentences, with many complements we can ask about, like for example “Mary arrived at the airport at 6:00pm, to take a flight to Norway, where she would spend the Holy Week holidays with her grandparents.”
About that sentence we could ask: Who arrived at the airport? Where did she arrive at? What did she go to the airport for? Why did she go to the airport? And other questions with Where? When? Whom with? Etc. (well not many more questions, as a matter of fact).
As you all can see we also practice past simple for questions, with the auxiliary verb “did”, except when “Who” is the subject of the verb. First I ask the students questions that they’ve got to answer, and afterward THEY ask those questions or others they can make up.
I would advise you not to stop at this activity for too long – it could be tiring in the end, but it’s okay to implement this exercise from time to time. Obviously we could use other verbal tenses. As simple as that. Try to use meaningful sentences when doing this activity: meaningful sentences for the real students you have! You can accompany this activity with a smile, and that makes for it! / Photo from: bicycle-desktop-background. The picture is just a beautiful illustration.

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